‘Upstairs, Downstairs: Season 2’ – The looming clouds of war

It’s September 1938, and the ominous developments on the Continent are causing plenty of angst in England. The family at 165 Eaton Place — both upstairs and down — is no exception. As Season 2 of the new edition of “Upstairs Downstairs” begins, war is on everyone’s minds, despite Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s promise of “peace for our time.”

Sir Holland Hallam, the man of the house, is a diplomat who is involved in many secret doings. Unlike some of his cohorts, he is very mistrustful of Hitler. Sir Holland’s wife, Lady Agnes, copes with the stress of running a household preparing for war with as much aplomb as she can muster. Sir Holland’s aunt, an archaeologist named Blanche Mottorshead, is living with them. Played by the inimitable Alex Kingston, Blanche is brash and outspoken.

Downstairs, Rose Buck, the housekeeper from the original 1970s series who was hired for the same position by the new family, has developed TB and is in a sanitarium. The downstairs staff members muddle through the best they can. The butler is now an air raid warden and takes his duties very seriously. The young male servants are expecting to be called up for military service any day. The old ways of servitude are changing as the world changes.

Meatless meals are the order of the day, and gas masks have been distributed. There’s even a special sealed cradle for the Hallams’ baby girl that supposedly is gas-proof. One of the servants decides to test the device on the household’s pet monkey, with disastrous results — for the monkey, at least.

This series’ six episodes do a fine job of showing the stresses of impending war on the home front. Sir Hallam’s diplomatic work takes him away from his family. His wife, neglected and taken for granted, has her own worries. And early in the series, Agnes’ wayward younger sister, Persephone (Persie), joins the household and stirs up a bushel of trouble.

Persie had moved to Germany two years before, taking up with a series of men and ultimately being the “kept woman” of a German officer. But when riots break out against the Jews on Kristallnacht in November 1938, she hysterically calls Agnes, begging to come home. Hallam pulls strings and gets her out on a diplomatic flight.

Interwoven into the stories of fictitious characters are some very real people: the Duke and Duchess of Kent, Neville Chamberlain, and Joe and Rose Kennedy and their son Jack. The Kennedys have dinner at Eaton Place, and Joe tries to convince Hallam to take a position in the U.S. Jack shows some of the winsome charm he used later in his political career.

The plight of the Jews hits home at Eaton Place when Blanche gets involved in Kinder Transport, an effort to bring Jewish children to England to save them from Nazi persecution. The children are matched with foster families who will keep them during the war.

While this series is largely serious as befits the time in which it is set, there is some levity. The chauffeur, a former champion boxer, trains one of the other servants to box. A championship bout turns out a bit differently than planned, but it’s fun all the same.

Still, some of the characters in Season 2 go through changes that aren’t good for anyone, including themselves. There are lies, betrayals and broken hearts. Secret information is getting to the Germans — is someone in the Eaton Place circle to blame?

There are only six episodes in Season 2, so the storyline sometimes feels compressed. At other times, it seems to move too slowly, but there are some gasp-inducing plot twists along the way.

The ending isn’t a whiz-bang cliffhanger, but it leaves enough of the plot hanging to ensure that there’s more to come in Season 3. As the screen fades to black, the air raid sirens wail. England is at war.